12. Einstürzende Neubauten80-83 Strategies Against Architecture

I first saw Einstürzende Neubauten live in 1991. This could be me idealising the experience because it was such a long time ago, but my memory of the night is fixated on the audience’s reaction. At a certain point during the show, I remember turning around to see six hundred shocked faces, transfixed by what was happening on stage. There were all these crazy elements to the performance: a gigantic clock covered in bells and spinning feathers. Blixa Bargeld really opened the door for Xiu Xiu in terms of what was possible sonically with non-traditional sound. Their latest record is fantastic too. That track ‘Ten Grand Goldie’? Fucking loved it. I think alot about the context that Einstürzende Neubauten emerged out of: West Berlin, during the Cold War, the city completely divided by oppositional forces. And their response was to made this aggressive, abrasive music that rebelled entirely against the pointless battle between communism and capitalism. Two of the worst conceivable economic systems locked in a fight against each other. It must have been like having two asshole parents trying to ruin your life.